Voices in the Laurel plans Christmas concert

Singers from the internationally acclaimed children’s choir Voices in the Laurel will perform a special Christmas concert at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 12, at Long’s Chapel United Methodist Church in Lake Junaluska.

This year’s concert will be entitled “The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree,” with a reading by author Gloria Houston. Houston hails from Western North Carolina and this particular story is a local favorite set in the Appalachian Mountains. There will also be a special guest musician, Anne Lough, playing the mountain and hammered dulcimers befitting the theme and creating a special ambience for the concert.

The choir will perform a dramatization of parts of the story by Ms. Houston. Concert and story music will include Appalachian and southern Christmas carols, including, “I Wonder as I Wander,” “Hush My Babe,” “Children, Go Where I Send Thee,” and a special arrangement of “Rise Up Shepherd” by Malcolm Dalglish and much more.

Voices in the Laurel has toured throughout the United States, Europe and Australia since 1996, singing in venues such as the Ryman Autidorium, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Sydney Opera House. In 2012, Voices will be traveling to Vienna and Salzburg, Austria, and Prague in the Czeck Republic.

The choirs range from the Treble Makers, comprised of first- and second-graders, to the Concert choir in third through fifth grade, and the Chamber choir from sixth through twelfth grade.

For information visit www.voicesinthelaurel.org or call 828.335.2849. Tickets are $10 for adults and $6 for children under 12.

The Naturalist's Corner

I had originally intended to spend today (Monday, Feb. 16) doing a couple of short surveys for the annual Great Backyard Bird Count. But Sunday morning amid more and more (and more and more dire) weather forecasts warning of some pretty heavy winter weather coming our way I began to contemplate counting Sunday instead. Around 9 a.m. Sunday I peeked out the downstairs window. Well, in my yard were 17 wild turkeys. It looked like a large group of jakes and gobblers.